Large needle felted white wool masks will be worn by dancers in Sunday's walk in Shockoe Bottom. (photo by Natassja Swift)
Local artist Nastassja Swift and eight dancers will walk almost 4 miles from the Richmond Slave Trail to Jackson Ward this Sunday, Aug. 26, at 5:30 p.m. The performance is titled “Remembering Her Homecoming: From the North Atlantic to Leigh Street,” and was supported with a grant from CultureWorks. The purpose of the two-hour walk, she says, is to relive black female history. The title refers to Shockoe Bottom’s role as a port in the slave trade.
There will be dancing, clapping and stomping as the dancers, clad in white and wearing large, felted wool masks, move through Shockoe Bottom and Jackson Ward. Swift, 25, encourages people to participate at the end of this performance near 22 E. Leigh St. She adds that she wants those involved in the project to experience a deeper connection to the city, and to reflect on what it meant to be a black woman living in Richmond while enslaved and in the decades that followed.
